Transport kayak on minivan

[tmc3p]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone is using a minivan to transport a kayak.
I am about to buy a hobie Revo 13, and I'll have to use my Honda Odyssey to transport. Before i pull the trigger, just wanted to see how hard itll be to load a kayak on minivan.

[Mark]

Thousands of miles for my Revo:

A.jpg

And my Ultimate:

H.jpg

I cinch down both kayaks with 2 ratchet straps. I do not use bow or stern lines. Some suggest the bow and stern lines are necessary. But given the length of my boats at 13 and 12 feet respectively, and the overall length of the van's roof, I find that I have a solid wide platform for the boats to rest on and two straps are sufficient.

For assistance in lifting I use this Yakima "Showboat 66" roller and I use foam blocks on the crossbars of my van's factory rack:

A.jpg B.jpg C.jpg

Here's a link to the Yakima Showboat: https://www.yakima.com/showboat-66

Note the above close-up photos of the Showboat were of it on my old Sienna Van. The Yakima roller also works on my 2017 Sienna.

My Revo is 62 pounds stripped down and my Ultimate is 49 pounds.

[tmc3p]

Mark, thanks so much for tips and photos. That helps a lot!


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[Mark]

You're welcome.

Good luck.

[J.A. Veil]

Mark and I both use recent model year Toyota Siennas. He uses a roof rack, I carry my kayak fully inside with the rear door closed. As my back issues became more significant, I sold my heavier 13' pedal kayak and my 14' paddle kayak, leaving me with a 10' pedal kayak and an 11' paddle kayak. With careful arrangement of the minivan seats, I am able to put either kayak, plus all my gear inside the van. Even when I had the longer kayaks, I used to drive with the rear tailgate open (if you do that, make sure to leave a front window open for ventilation). The newer vehicles have annoying open-door buzzers. It took me some time to learn how to disable the buzzer when I hauled the longer kayaks that stuck out the back.

My Slayer Propel 10 in my previous minivan:

043.jpg 044.jpg 052.jpg 053.jpg

My Manta Ray 11 in my Toyota minivan:

P1020524.jpg

For a 13' kayak, you need to test it on your own minivan and play around with different seat removal and folding scenarios.

[tmc3p]

Yes if i can put it inside of the vehicle, that would be fantastic. Rev13 seems tough to put in but ill try!


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[tmc3p]

One quick question.
Was it ok to drive with the gate open for 2hrs or so? Do you happen to know it's legal to drive with gate open??


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[Mark]

I don't know the answer to your question but I suspect the law is more concerned that the contents in your van are secured than if the tailgate is not completely shut. Certainly you should lower the tailgate as far as it will go and tie it down if for no other reason than to not call undue attention to yourself.

You'll probably not get a 13 foot Revo inside your van and be able to close the tailgate. For grins, John and I once stuffed my 12 foot Ultimate into his van. It barely fit. I think that extra foot on the Revo make it just a bit too long.

[tmc3p]

Transport kayak on minivan

It makes sense. Thank you!


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[J.A. Veil]

One quick question.
Was it ok to drive with the gate open for 2hrs or so? Do you happen to know it's legal to drive with gate open??


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As far as I know it is fully legal to have a few feet of the kayak hanging out the rear of a van. The longest I ever drove that way was about an hour. Most of the time my trips were 30 mins or less. As I noted earlier, to avoid sucking in exhaust, you need to leave at least one front window open. That gets pretty noisy and annoying for long drives.

The total length that can fit inside of a minivan depends on the configuration of your van. The front seat on my old Odyssey would fold nearly flat. The front seat on my new Sienna drops only to an angle of about 30 degrees. This causes the bow of the kayak to lift up as I slide it in upright. Given the flat slope of the Sienna's windshield, the bow hits either the windshield or the top of the side window. If I turned the kayak upside down (as in the next photo), the angle of the bow better matches the angle of the windshield and would allow me to push in a longer length of kayak. If you have a slender kayak, like a Revo, you may be able to run it from left rear to right front. You really don't know until you try it.

006.jpg


I was considering getting one of Native's new Slayer 12 LT kayaks until I could actually try to load it inside the van. It did not fit, so I did not buy that model.

[Seasalt]

I have an odyssey that I use for transporting my two hobies. If I'm alone and take the Outback out, I use the Thule Hullavator. If I take the Revolution 11, I just strap it down on my square Thule bars since I can adequately car top it.

I should have some pictures some where. With the 66inch bars I do have enough room to carry two kayaks with the Hullavator but I don't have enough "faith" to drive long distance with highway speeds.

[tmc3p]

I just googled the hullavator. Wow I didn't know that kind of thing exists. Looks pretty cool.
Ill probably first try to top it on the factory rack and see how it goes.


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[FishingGeek]

I did a DIY thing to protect the back glass of my Pacifica, Works great.IMG_0781.jpgIMG_0782.jpgIMG_0784.jpgIMG_0844.jpg

[tmc3p]

Very cool!!


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[Big Mike]

Very cool!!


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Words rarely used in conjunction with mini-van.